Essential knowledge of the Night
by Vesperra
Summary: A young woman who likes to study the Dark Arts is invited to join the Order of the Phoenix… This will change the fate of many. Maybe Severus Snape will find a friend who will make him break his vow? The story starts from the end of HP and the Goblet of Fire. AU. Enjoy!
1. Chapter 1 The encounter

**Author's note:** SS/OC and HP/HG will be in the future but not in the near future. SB also will be one of the central characters (and he is not going to die). English is not my native language, so sorry for mistakes. I hope you will like it. READ, ENJOY and REVIEW!:)

Harry Potter universe belongs to the J.K Rowling. I don't own it. Only OC is mine.

Chapter 1. The encounter

It was nearly midnight. With a faint pop a woman appeared out of nowhere at the edge of the Forbidden Forest. She outstretched her arms to find balance and after making sure she was standing safely on the ground she looked around. Her gaze briefly stopped on the Hagrid's hut that was seen in the distance before she raised her eyes and enjoyed a beautiful view of Hogwarts for a few moments. She was not a frequent visitor at Hogwarts, in fact she was here only once in her life six years ago. Hogwarts School was so much different from Beauxbatons Academy where she had spent almost ten years of her life. And she liked that difference: it was far less pompous, less sumptuous; contrary to Beauxbatons this castle was in perfect harmony with the outside landscape.

After a few seconds the young woman started making her way through the school grounds to the castle. She walked fast and completely soundless making light, quick strides. Her long dark blue cloak was flapping around her ankles almost touching the grass. Finally she reached the large wooden doors which were opened just enough for one person to come in. She quietly slipped in and continued her way. As she passes by, some of the portraits hanging on the walls of the corridor were sending her curious looks. After making the last turn she went through the Gargoyle Corridor towards Headmaster's tower. But unfortunately she was stopped by the Stone Gargoyle that stood in her way.

"Let me in," Elsie said in the most imperious tone she could master. As it was expected the Gargoyle was unimpressed and remained motionless.

She was tired after a long day and wanted to sleep which was quite natural desire at this time of night. But this evening she had received a letter from Dumbledore who being as eccentric as always without giving any reasonable explanation just asked her to come here immediately. She could not just ignore this request as it was from Dumbledore and it could be something extremely important after all. So she just wanted to get through with it as quickly as possible, return back home and enter into the world of dreams. Now when she thought about that letter she particularly recalled the last sentence, it was completely out of place: "I enjoy Canned Cannanoodles ", it said.

"Canned Cannanoodles," Elsie said looking at the Gargoyle again with a slight smirk on her face.

The statue reluctantly leapt aside and the wall behind it slid apart revealing a moving spiral staircase. She stepped onto it and thus was carried up to the door that led to Dumbledore's Office.

She knocked on the door several times and patiently waited but the only answer she received was silence. Elsie shrugged, opened the door which was surprisingly unlocked, and entered the large circular room. It was just as she remembered, only the number of silver instruments on spindle legged tables as well as books on the shelves increased. The same shabby tattered hat was sitting on enormous claw footed table, though there was no gorgeous phoenix, which was present the last time she visited this place. The portraits of headmasters and headmistresses were sleeping soundly, not at all disturbed by her appearance.

She came closer to the headmaster's desk, sat on one of the chairs in front of it and looked around. Her eyes once again followed the rows of books on the walls, the old hat, she saw the silver sword with rubies on the hilt. Suddenly she noticed a path of silver light dancing on its glass case and turned around on her seat wondering where this strange light came from. At that moment the office door opened abruptly.

* * *

Severus was standing on his knees on the cold ground of graveyard in front of Lord Voldemort. He was looking straight ahead but not focusing his eyes on anything in particular. Recent rain turned the ground into the mud and he could feel the fabric of his trousers around his knees quickly became wet.

"As I was saying, Severus, I believe your story," the Dark Lord continued his speech, every "s" pronounced by him was like snake's hissing.

Severus slowly raised his head and looked at his supposed Master.

There was nothing human left in the Dark Lord's appearance anymore. His eyes, which were hazel with occasional gleam of red before his resurrection, acquired a livid scarlet color and the pupils became serpentine vertical. He did not have a nose anymore as well as hair, only the two slits for nostrils and the absolutely bald head with his skin whiter than a skull. Overall the sight was as repulsive as it could be.

Severus knew better than to believe that the Dark Lord was completely persuaded by his explanations, he would have to prove his loyalty in the future somehow before the Dark Wizard would trust him entirely again but before that he would be still under suspicion. He had no idea how he was going to manage it. Severus fought the desire to pinch the bridge of his nose.

The Dark Lord fastened his red eyes on Severus' black ones, probing his mind once again, once again trying to expose Severus in his lie. Potions Professor saw memories flashing before his eyes but he skillfully concealed all episodes of his life the Dark Lord did not need to know. One more time Voldemort found nothing contradictory to Severus' words.

"I understand that you arrived later than you should for quite a good reason but this still does not release you from responsibility of Potter boy escape. You are just as guilty as my other Death Eaters, so you are going to receive the same punishment," the Dark Lord said taking out his white wand and pointing it straight at Severus.

Severus knew very well what punishment that would be but he by no means could prepare to the terrible burning pain that seized all his body as the Dark Wizard calmly, almost lazily said the horrible spell.

"Crucio," his high-pitched voice died in the silence of the night.

Like thousands white-hot knives were piercing and severing every inch of Severus' skin, it seemed every bone in his body was caught on fire. At that moment he was quite sure, his hair and nails were in pain too.

Severus fell on the ground trying very hard to stifle the scream. Finally his scream broke through his clenched teeth. Writhing in front of the Dark Lord Severus unconsciously dipped his fingers into the earth and the rusty sharp old nail pierced his right hand. But being in such extreme pain he did not even notice it.

Severus was not aware how much time he had spent like this but by the end he was ready to do anything to stop this torture, all his being wanted to die. All at once the pain stopped. His body relaxed as he limply lay on the ground panting.

The Dark Lord looked at Severus indifferently for a few seconds.

"You may go," he finally said. Severus heard the faint rustle of the robes and the pop indicating that the Dark Wizard disapparated away.

Taking a deep breath Severus put his hands in front of him trying to stand up. Suddenly he became very aware of a nail in his right hand as an unexpected searing pain shot through his hand causing him to hiss and fell back on the ground. He made a second, more successful effort to stand up, this time leaning only on one hand. Finally he straightened himself up swaying a little from light dizziness. His muscles and back were very tired and ached, he also felt the growing pain in the head. Sixteen years ago he recovered from these punishments way easier and faster. He noticed that surprisingly he did not become younger over the years, he did not become healthier either. Apparently constantly being in the dungeons and doing his not-so-favorite job would not help to improve his state too.

Severus lifted his right hand. A deep ragged gash spread across his palm, blood was issuing from it profusely. Grimacing he extracted the bloody nail out of his hand and threw it disgustedly in the bushes. He sighed wondering about his evident "luckiness". The Fate clearly did not like him much but there was no surprise here, this day was just another proof. He loathed all this so much and it was only the beginning.

It was so thoughtless of him not to take any Essence of Dittany as it was so needful right now. He would not admit it to anybody but he did not know any spells to cure his hand. It was really ironical that he could deal with very serious magical wounds but had no competence to cure a simple gash from the nail. He hid his bleeding hand in the folds of his robes, then took out his wand with his left hand instead of right. But it felt so unnatural there that for a moment he even began to doubt if he would manage to apparate without splitting himself. Shoving second thoughts aside he turned on the spot and dissapeared.

Severus appeared a few meters away from the gates with the tall pillars on either side of them. He went fast towards the castle. His long Death Eater cloak was billowing behind making him look like a giant bat more than usual. He crossed the school grounds, quietly came inside through the large wooden doors and headed straight to Dumbledore's office through the countless hallways hoping to meet none of the professors or ghosts or all the more students on his way.

Finally he was standing in front of the Stone Gargoyle. He murmured the ridiculous password through clenched teeth thinking that sooner or later he would force Dumbledore to choose a normal word for that purpose and knowing at the same time that he would never do such a thing. The statue slid aside revealing the circular staircase which began to move immediately. He stepped onto it and was carried up to the familiar door with the brass knocker. Not even bothering to knock he opened the door, came in and immediately stopped.

A young woman was sitting on the chair beside Dumbledore's desk; she was looking directly at Severus with her big bright-blue almond shaped eyes. For several seconds they were motionless, their eyes locked. Suddenly Severus took the ebony wand out of his pocket, releasing that Dumbledore was absent, and pointed it straight at the unfamiliar woman. He reacted purely out of reflex with his nerves stretched like the strings of the guitar after the night's events. He completely forgot about his wound at that moment, so the sharp pain that shot through his hand kindly reminded him about it. He grimaced, which did not go unnoticed by Elsie, and took his wand in another hand.

"Who are you?" he asked slowly with a threat in his smooth voice.

Elsie stood up hastily smoothening her dark blue robes with her hands. Her eyes darted quickly to the wand directed at her before she looked straight into his black ones.

"I received a letter from Dumbledore this evening, he asked me to come here," she said with a slight French accent.

This man looked very strange and she had no idea who he might be, certainly he could not be one of the professors. His black hair was slightly disheveled. His face was unhealthily pallid with dark circles under his eyes, he was wearing formerly black robes but now they were all covered in mud. And something was clearly wrong with his right hand, which he carefully hid in his robes.

Looking again uneasily at his wand Elsie added:

"Sir, I don't like to be the target of your wand. I am not going to attack you in any moment, so, please, put it down."

Glancing at her appraisingly Severus finally decided that he actually overreacted and put his wand away. But he still did not know who this woman was and what she was doing in Dumbledore's Office. In appearance she could not be more than eighteen years old. Elsie had a thick wavy dark chestnut hair which went almost down to her waist, a small braid ran down from the back of her head and was almost unnoticeable in the rest of her loose hair. Her skin was pale; she had a small, a little bit upturned nose, which gave her somewhat arrogant look. Her face and body seemed too slender for her crown of hair. While she was in no way beautiful, she possessed a certain charm but Severus did not know about it yet.

"Where is Dumbledore?" Severus asked eyeing her suspiciously.

"I honestly don't know. He was absent when I arrived, so I decided to wait -" She stopped speaking.

A few drops of blood slowly fell on the stone floor from his right hand. Her eyes widened slightly. Noticing her strange look he made an attempt to hide his hand again in the folds of his robes but it was too late.

"Monsieur, your hand … it's bleeding," she stated, uncertainly coming closer to him.

"I don't know what you are talking about," he took a deep breath, "It's probably your imagination, whatever it is," he retorted sternly stepping back from Elsie who frowned at the movement.

"You can't deny this. I can see blood on the floor," she replied obstinately pointing at the spot on the floor near him where the drops of blood fell. He gazed there briefly but then looked back at her, his eyes burning with annoyance.

"It's absolutely none of your business," he snapped at her.

"Give me your hand," she said making a step forward and putting out her hand towards him, "I can heal it."

But it seemed the rudeness of his answers increased with every persistent request of hers.

"I have no notion of doing this, woman. I can do it very well by myself when I'll return to my quarters," he replied through clenched teeth sending her one of his most intimidating glares.

Nevertheless she was not affected by his behavior at all as she had no intension to let it go.

Another few drops of blood fell on the floor as if to contradict Severus' previous words. He was extremely tired and the only one desire was left in his head: to sink in the comfortable chair near Dumbledore's desk and drink some Strengthening Solution, but he absolutely refused to show any sign of weakness in front of this woman. They continued staring at each other intently, determined not to back down.

Not much time was needed for Elsie to figure out that the man was very stubborn and would not accept her help. And she sincerely could understand him as she herself was always reluctant to show her weaknesses in front of others, especially unknown people. Therefore she decided to use another approach instead of just clearly pointless convictions. She folded her hands behind her back and quietly took out the wand from her sleeve.

"Let me heal your hand," she requested for the last time but it sounded more like an order. Then she flicked her wand behind her back casting a silent Confundus Charm.

The biting words had already formed in his mind when he opened his mouth to answer her but suddenly all rude words flew out of his head. His mind went blank and as if mesmerized Severus pulled out his bleeding hand and put it in her small, very soft hand.

Elsie inhaled sharply and her lips formed a thin line as she looked at his wound. She took his hand in both of hers and closed her eyes, a tiny wrinkle formed between her eyebrows showing her concentration.

At first her hands seemed a bit cold, then they started to warm up till they were almost hot but still it was a pleasant sensation for Severus. Slowly the pain in his hand began to cease until it disappeared completely. Still she continued holding his hand, her eyes still closed. Gradually this pleasant, yet strange sensation began to leave his hand and spread throughout his body bringing Severus long-awaited relief from the Cruciatus curse. Some color returned to his face and he breathed deeply, he felt himself far better. After a few seconds he blinked coming out this dream like state but he still was somehow confused. The spell made him think for a while that everything was as it should be.

Finally she opened her eyes, looked at his palm and smiled slightly at him, it was a weary smile. Absent-mindedly Severus noticed that her big eyes were not just blue but they became slightly green closer to the pupil.

The gash was healed completely, the thin layer of new pink skin covered his palm.

"There will be no scar," she informed Severus quietly but she was not quite sure if he heard her.

At last she released his hand and stepped back returning Severus his personal space. Nothing in Severus' expression showed his complete and utter surprise about her unusual abilities as he stood there, deep in thought about it. Their previous conversation was completely forgotten by him for the time being.

Eventually Elsie disturbed the course of his thoughts making him return to reality:

"Sir, I advise you to clean your robes up a bit before Dumbledore comes."

Severus glanced down at his robes and at once understood that she was right. He grimaced: the state of his robes was deplorable to put it mildly. He retrieved his own wand for the third time and quickly cast several spells to clean his dirty robes and make them look at least satisfactory, then he vanished the drops of blood from the stone floor. He did it just in time because the next second the door opened and Albus Dumbledore entered the room.


	2. Chapter 2 Bad news

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Chapter 2. Bad news

Albus Dumbledore entered his office and found Severus and Elsie standing in the middle of the room a few steps away from each other - Severus with a usual frown on his face and Elsie with her arms crossed.

"Good evening, or better say good night. I trust you've already met?" Dumbledore asked looking at them over his half-moon glasses.

Severus considered what he should tell Headmaster and it seemed to him that his brain was doing its job unusually slowly. But he did not get the opportunity to answer as Elsie was faster. She gave Severus a meaningful look of her clear blue eyes before replying innocently:

"Actually, Headmaster, I have come only a moment ago because I received your letter not so long ago. You know unfortunate owl," she smiled faintly, "And Monsieur was already here. Am I right?"

She looked at Severus expectantly.

At first Severus wanted to look at her with a mock surprise but on the second thought he refrained from doing so. He himself was not very eager to tell Dumbledore about the miserable state in which he had come here. And he inevitably would have to mention it too, if he decided to tell Headmaster about her rare abilities. On the other hand he was not quite sure if he should lie to the old man either. Then he thought that it would not be altogether lie because he would just agree with this meddlesome woman, and besides he could tell Dumbledore about her ability, if he did not know about it yet, when it would be necessary. He would have enough opportunities of doing this in the future. There was nothing dangerous about this piece of information after all.

Before silence became suspiciously long Severus cleared his throat and answered:

"Yes, I … we didn't even have time to introduce ourselves to each other." For some reason using the word 'we' seemed so unexpectedly strange to him.

Dumbledore walked further into the room and stood by his desk.

"Well, then I suppose it should be done now," he turned to Severus, "Severus, let me introduce you Miss Elsie Edevane, she works in the Ministry of Magic."

Severus gave her a barely noticeable nod while Dumbledore turned toward Elsie.

"Miss Edevane, this is Professor Severus Snape, the Potions Master of our school."

Elsie was deeply surprised to discover that this man was actually a professor, considering his previous poor condition, though she did not let it show on her face. However, she was quite curious and wondered about what happened with him.

She held out her hand for a handshake smiling slightly. Severus viewed her hand for a few moments with contemptuous enough expression on his face, nevertheless he took her hand and shook it firmly. At once he was surprised as he received an equally strong shake back.

"It's nice to meet you, Professor Snape," she said mildly. Severus sneered at her clearly showing that the feeling was not mutual. Elsie refrained from rolling her eyes at this explicit answer knowing that the man likely would not appreciate her reaction.

With the introduction successfully finished the Headmaster spoke:

"I apologize for the late hour but I am afraid it should be done as soon as possible. We have a very important matter to discuss, so, please, take a seat."

Dumbledore went around his desk and sit at his high-backed chair while Elsie and Severus took seats as far away from each other as possible. More correctly it was Severus who had taken a seat which was the farthest from Elsie's.

While Elsie was intrigued since she had no idea what Dumbledore was going to talk about, Severus, on the contrary, knew exactly what the subject of their future conversation would be. The only thing he did not understand was the point of inviting this woman, who was barely out of age in his opinion, to tell her about the Dark Lord's return first hand. However he frequently could not comprehend the reasons behind the old man's certain actions. But now he did not really care about it. He was just irritated that he would have to sit through the whole discussion, before he could report Headmaster on the first meeting with the Dark Lord in private when this woman would finally leave.

"I believe you are aware that the final task of the Triwizard Tournament has taken place today?" Dumbledore asked and after receiving a positive nod from Elsie continued in somewhat casual tone as if he was merely discussing weather, "Unfortunately, during this task Harry Potter witnessed the return of Lord Voldemort."

There was a dead silence in the room, tension could be felt in the air.

Severus, who was a little bit curious to see her reaction, was disappointed as there was no scream of terror or even a small cry indicating her shock - a reaction, which would be in his opinion so typical for all women. The only signs that revealed her present state of astonishment were slightly widened eyes and raised eyebrows.

"How-", she blinked a couple of times, cleared her throat and tried to relax her rigid body, "how did it happen? How is it even possible?" she asked uncertainly briefly glancing at Severus before shifting her gaze back on Dumbledore. Elsie still partly expected it to be some kind of perverted, weird joke but the grave looks on the men's faces told her exactly the opposite.

During the next hour Dumbledore told her everything that had led to the resurrection of Lord Voldemort. She learnt practically every detail of Harry's disadvantages and his lucky escape the previous day except maybe the role Hogwarts' DADA professor, who was discovered to be Barty Crouch Jr, played in all this. Severus surely noticed the missing part of the story but he did not care enough to do anything about it. He was inwardly convinced that Dumbledore did not reveal it on purpose because he did not want her to think ill of him as a Headmaster after hiring such a horrible professor. This did not prevent Severus from becoming more and more bored with each minute, furthermore it was late in the night and he wanted to sleep very much after such extremely exhausting day. And so by the end of the story he was sitting in his chair with his head supported by one hand while twirling his wand with the other. As it happened he did not manage to find more useful occupation however he tried.

Elsie glanced at him and smirked seeing his state which was, in her opinion, the embodiment of boredom. Feeling her eyes on him Severus immediately straightened his back in the chair and gave her a swift, piercing look. Elsie looked at her hands on her knees ashamed of laughing at him because she noticed dark circles under his eyes indicating more his tiredness than boredom.

Meanwhile Headmaster continued:

"Now you know the truth and, believe me, you may be sure that the Ministry is going to vehemently deny the return of Voldemort because Cornelius Fudge is afraid of what will happen if he admits it. He is frightened of what he inevitably will have to face; and fear makes people do reckless things. But it's not the only reason why I asked you to come here," he paused and looked pointedly at her over his glasses, "There is a secret organization called the Order of the Phoenix. Its goal is to oppose Voldemort and his followers, to prevent the evil spreading over the world."

"And you are the leader of this organization?" Elsie asked though she already guessed the answer, for whoever else could be.

"Yes, I am," Dumbledore responded smiling mysteriously, Severus sighed eloquently, "But the main question is- do you want to become a member of it?"

Severus looked at the Headmaster incredulously, he could not believe Dumbledore really wanted her to join the Order. He did not even know who this woman was. She was not even an Auror. He wanted to voice his opinion about it but Dumbledore looked at him shaking his head slightly thus silently telling Severus to keep his objections to himself.

Elsie was surprised at this offer too since she had literally no idea that Dumbledore had so much faith in her. She herself was not quite sure if she was ready to become a member of the Order. So she remained speechless.

Finally Dumbledore decided to break the silence:

"It's a very serious choice. You need to think carefully before making a final decision because once you are in the Order, there is no way out of it."

Strangely but the last sentence reminded Severus of the Dark Lord's words before he printed the Dark Mark on Severus' forearm. Even though it happened so many years ago, the vivid memory of it remained forever in his head.

"Let's see. I will give you one week to decide, then you should come and tell me your decision."

"Well, all right," Elsie answered standing up, "I think I should be going now. Good night, Headmaster. Good night, Professor Snape." She nodded to both of them and walked towards the door closely followed by Severus's gaze.

"Good night, Miss Edevane," Dumbledore said as the door closed behind her.

As soon as the door closed and her footsteps died away Severus sprang from his seat and almost shouted pointing at the door:

"Are you out of your mind, old man?! She is barely out of age, it is too dangerous for her!"

"Severus, please, calm down," Headmaster said sternly, "She is twenty-six years old. She is old enough to join the Order if she wants to."

"But I am sure she isn't even an Auror!" Severus retorted, "She couldn't have enough knowledge and skills to fight against the Dark Lord, she is too weak. And by the way who is she? How can you trust her so much?"

"Severus, sit down, so we could have a proper conversation!" Dumbledore ordered.

"Fine," this time Severus decided to obey and sat down feeling himself a little like a dog and tried to master his temper. Now he felt slightly ashamed of his unreasonable reaction; he must be really exhausted since he had already started to blurt out his thoughts like this.

"First of all why do you think she cannot be an Auror?" Headmaster asked.

"Because… because she is too … subtle. No, that's definitely not the right word. Well, she just didn't look like one to me." Severus was not actually quite sure why he came to this conclusion.

"Then why you were decisive in your opinion as you obviously have nothing to base it on? You have never met her before, for this reason you shouldn't judge her so soon. Things aren't always what they seem to be, you should know it by now."

Severus rolled his eyes at another old man's wisdom.

"However, you're right and she isn't an Auror. She works at the Department of Mysteries."

"I knew it. My intuition never lies," Severus muttered in reply but Dumbledore heard him nonetheless.

"Yes, but she could become an Auror if she wanted to. She just chose another route in life."

Severus snorted because he was not at all sure that Headmaster was telling the truth right now. That old sayings that "if you can dream it, you can do it" or better "you can be anything you want to be in this life" were complete rubbish, Severus was sure she did not possess enough capability to be an Auror.

Dumbledore added:

"And don't be so skeptical."

"So who is she? And why do you trust her?" Severus inquired persistently, completely ignoring the last piece of advice.

"Well, she is an old acquaintance of mine," Dumbledore began to explain, "She was educated at Beauxbatons Academy of Magic and was helping Charms professor there for two years. The fact was that the Charms professor was too old to teach the full time but still didn't want to retire, so she was taking some of the classes and providing necessary assistance. And before you ask, she is quite talented in Charms. Then she moved to England and worked in the Department of Mysteries since then. That is all you need to know about her by now."

"Why are you so sure where her allegiance lies?" It was the question which concerned Severus most of all.

"She surely would never be tempted to join the Death Eaters, you can be certain in that. Though there is a possibility that she might choose to stay neutral but very slight one," Headmaster replied in a tone by which Severus guessed that he was going to receive no more information about this lady. The discussion of this matter was closed for the time being.

"Now, give me your memories about the meeting with Tom and you may be free," Dumbledore said. Severus raised an eyebrow, for a second he thought it was a joke.

"My memories? Do you not trust my word?"

"Severus, you know I trust your word completely but you're clearly tired and it's very late. I feel you are not ready for this conversation right now. So it would be better if you just give me your memories and we'll discuss the details tomorrow."

This suggestion sounded very reasonable but still Severus was not very eager to let the old man actually see his meeting with the Dark Lord. However, his eyelids were becoming heavier and heavier with each minute, furthermore he had spent enough time arguing with Dumbledore for one day.

"Very well," Severus said these two words as if somebody was pulling it out of his mouth by force.

He took out his wand and placed a tip of it to his right temple, extract a glistening strand of required memories out of his head and carefully put it into the flask which Dumbledore was already holding in front of him. Severus, of course, was not going to give him all the memory but only actual conversation between the Dark Lord and himself. Headmaster would do very well even without seeing him under Cruciatus curse.

Then Severus stood up from his chair and walked to the door with all the tragedy he was capable of. He opened the door saying:

"Good night, Headmaster," and went out.

Severus went straight to his chambers. Upon entering he removed his boots and robes right away. He did not even bother to put them neatly, he just left them in a pile near the entrance. He lied down on the bad and fell deeply asleep in a few seconds.

* * *

Severus woke up next morning at about eleven o'clock which was unusually late for him as he always was up before seven. He was really thankful that it was Sunday and so he did not have to teach a bunch of little dunderheads today. He already missed breakfast but he hoped the agitation of the previous day distracted everyone from noticing his absence. He rolled over on his back and looked at the ceiling. He put both his hands on his face and closed his eyes. He slowly started lifting his hands off his face mentally preparing himself to get up. But then he stopped and looked at his right hand carefully. His hand was … well his hand, but it caught his interest for some reason. Suddenly he remembered this strange young woman who healed his hand the night before. But an interesting thing, he also definitely remembered that he by no means was going to accept her help.

"Wait a minute," Severus said aloud, his voice sounded too loud in the quiet room, "She used a Confundus charm on my person!? What a little filthy cheat!" The rage was boiling inside of him, therefore as he was alone he decided not to bottle it up. He picked up a bottle of Dreamless Sleep potion, which always was on his bedside table just in case he had one of his nightmares, and threw it with all his force in the opposite wall. The bottle smashed loudly and the purple potion started to trickle gracefully along the wall.

Fair amount of points were taken from all houses, except for Slytherin of course, and fair amount of students received detentions for various reasons on that sunny summer day.


	3. Chapter 3 About her

**Author's note:** Please, don't judge my French too hard… (Though I have no idea why I cannot do very well without it)

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Chapter 3. About her

Elsie lived in a small two-room flat in London. She considered herself very lucky to buy it when she moved back to England.

This flat was previously owned by an old lady. That lady lived here for many years before she suddenly, out of nowhere, as the neighbors said, got an irresistible desire to travel around the world. So she advertised her flat in the newspapers, that is how Elsie bought it, and immediately set out on travels, she was never seen in London again since. It was a usual muggle house and this old lady was a usual muggle. Elsie did not want to buy a real magical flat because to find one was more difficult and the choice was far smaller. Furthermore non-magical flats were always noticeably cheaper and at the time she did not have a lot of money to spend.

The non- magicness of this place did not bother Elsie in the slightest for she was not in the habit of constantly doing dangerous things that would disturb the neighbors during her leisure time. There was a small bedroom, a relatively ample living room and a kitchen. The two walls of the living room were completely covered in books, the rest of the space was filled with a desk and a chair, an armchair and a tea table, also there was a big window which made the room very light. Besides, there was a special place for her precious violin.

In the evening Elsie was sitting on the armchair with a heavy old book called "Dark Arts: the enigmatic mysteries". It was her latest purchase which took her a lot of time and effort to find and she was very proud of herself that she finally managed to get it. She tried to read but it was in vain: now she was staring at the same page for over an hour, deep in thought. And it was not the content of the book that was occupying her mind so much.

Elsie was thinking about Dumbledore and that Order of the Phoenix. She did not know what the right decision would be.

Sometimes she envied that lady: to change her life so radically in mere days - such a pleasure was inaccessible to Elsie. Her life stayed absolutely the same for six years. During all this time she purposefully did not change a single detail in it and the Time generously did not force any changes. It seemed that everything around moved on without Elsie leaving her on the exact same place.

Ever since she moved back to England she worked in the Department of Mysteries. This job suited her perfectly but except for her work there was nothing interesting in her life. Elsie had neither relatives nor friends to spend her time with; in fact all her relatives she knew of were dead by now. As it happened Elsie did not develop any close friendships with her coworkers: she worked with them, discussed different topics with them but she had no desire to converse with them outside the Ministry. Furthermore she was never in the habit of visiting big gatherings or places of the kind to meet new people, and nobody in her usual environment was especially close to her in character.

Overall her life was far from exciting, devoid of all out-of-ordinary events. Maybe that was the reason why she looked younger than she actually was for "people who don't live are wonderfully preserved"**.

But Elsie liked her life nevertheless. She never got bored - because her day was planned so well, so precise, there was basically no time for it. That is why she was not very eager to join the Order: it will definitely ruin her usual lifestyle, all that was carefully built throughout the years. And she feared that she would not be able to return to her old life after everything would be over one way or another.

On the other hand she was a muggle-born witch with no magical relatives whatsoever that meant she should dread Voldemort rising to power once again. If this extremely unfortunate event happened, she inevitably would have to leave Britain and never return as there would be no possible way for her to stay. This would change her life a lot more than Order membership. Obviously she did not want to make this step, too extreme for her yet.

In addition to that her whole nature could not allow her just to rely on other people in this far too important matter, hope that everything would come off well and Voldemort would be stopped once for all. It was especially true if the Ministry was going to do nothing, according to Dumbledore. She had to be sure of happy ending.

Also for once Elsie sensed the desire to change something, it was very far from strong but it was present after all.

Thus the choice was made. She closed the book and decided to go to bed.

* * *

After six days Elsie finally decided to pay Dumbledore a visit. It was Friday, so she left the Ministry earlier than usual and was at Hogwarts' gates at around six o'clock.

The sun was already going down though still shining brightly, the weather was excellent and the air was fresh; it was no surprise that all the students were outdoors comfortably lounging under the trees, talking between themselves or doing other things – of course, all except for studying. Nobody gave any attention to Elsie while she was passing school grounds and certainly she had not met a single soul in the corridors of the castle.

Elsie reached Headmaster's office and knocked three times, after a quiet "Enter" was heard she opened the door. Dumbledore was sitting at his desk absorbedly reading "Transfiguration Today", by no means the most entertaining magazine nowadays in her opinion. He put it down and looked at her.

"Good evening, Miss Edevane, it's nice to see you so soon. Please, sit down."

She nodded taking place in front of his desk, then spoke right out:

"I've carefully considered your proposal, Professor Dumbledore, and decided that I want to become a member of the Order of the Phoenix."

* * *

That day in the evening Severus was returning to his chambers. He had just turned round the corner when he saw that woman again. She was passing through the corridor perpendicular to the one he was standing in and did not notice him at all. All the hot anger he previously felt towards her surged up within him immediately. His first impulse was to go straight to her and demand explanation of her outrageous behavior, at least tell her what his opinion of the matter was. It was an incredibly outrageous impudence after all. But when he reached the corner, instead of drawing her attention, he quietly hided in the shadows making himself completely unnoticeable. He watched the scene before him which was such an excellent opportunity to exercise his spying skills.

Elsie was walking without looking round as she was contemplating her conversation with Dumbledore, her new position and the changes that were about to come. But suddenly she bumped into something solid and the voice exclaimed far above her head:

"Oh! Ma chere Elsie, quel plaisir de tu revoir après toutes ces années! Tu aurais dû me écrit plus souvent! "[Oh! My dear Elsie, how nice to see you again after all these years! You should have written me more often!]

Elsie looked up to see for a brief second Madame Maxime standing in front of her before she was lifted at least one foot from the ground. The Headmistress hugged her so tightly that she almost lost the ability to breath. Elsie tried to say greetings back but the only result of her efforts was unintelligible mumble. After some time she was set free again, then she said smoothing her robes:

"Quelle plaisante surprise, Madame Maxime. Je suis très heureux de vous voir aussi. Ça fait longtemps. "[ What a pleasant surprise, Madame Maxime. I am very glad to see you too, it has been a long time.] Elsie reservedly smiled. She attempted to retain her dignity but failed. All her words had an air of a child trying to be an adult in front of people who knew him since he was very little.

"Alors, mon cher, ce que tu as fait toutes ces années?" Madame Maxime asked, "Tu as pas changé du tout." [So my dear, what you have been doing all these years? You have not changed at all.] Thus the long series of questions of different kind started. Elsie sighed inwardly while she plastered a permanent smile on her face. Somehow she felt that this enquiry process would take more than an hour of her life. And she was quite right: more and more questions were asked and answered and soon the Headmistress was eagerly talking about herself too. Elsie always knew that she had a certain talent, or a bane, for involving herself in the useless conversations.

Curiously the Headmistress carefully avoided any mention of Voldemort's return though she certainly knew about it first-hand. Maybe that was partly the reason why she was so excited: she was happy to have somebody to talk to and distract herself from thinking about the dreadful subject.

Meanwhile Severus was still standing near the corner listening to all this drivel. He thought it would be a good opportunity to spy on this woman and maybe found out who she really was or at least what her true intensions were. He continued to hope that she would decline the offer Dumbledore made her because in this case he would have less things connected with the Order to worry about. But he could not understand a word in the whole conversation as his knowledge of the French language, or any other language apart from English, was nonexistent. Never in his life he took the trouble to learn a foreign language and now he slightly regretted it. Finally the growing vexation forced Severus to abandon his ambush.

He walked past them, intimidating with his black robes billowing behind him, glaring at Elsie spitefully. She turned her head and looked at him with a faint surprise, an indulgent smile appeared on her lips. His glare did not affect her at all; on the contrary she seemed to be quite amused by his behavior. All the while Madame Maxime continued to talk gesticulating eagerly and completely ignoring Severus passing nearby.

The next day Dumbledore told Severus that Elsie had taken the necessary oath of loyalty to the Order, that consequently she had become its rightful member and that Severus had to inevitably accept this fact. It all turned out just as the Potions Master had suspected. He was not pleased.

* * *

Her very first Order of the Phoenix meeting Elsie was going to attend would be next week on Saturday around three o'clock pm. Not the best possible time in her opinion as this gave her just enough time to get nervous. And this inexactitude meant that Dumbledore probably would be late.

On Saturday she woke up as usual at half past seven in the morning and did all her usual morning routine. She ate her oatmeal. Every morning she ate this because she was not endowed with a lot of cooking talents to cook different breakfasts every time, and thankfully she never got bored of this simple meal. Actually there was not such a thing as her cooking talents for she had none. It actually took her a good deal of time to learn how to cook a single, very simple meal for breakfast, dinner and supper, and in the past there was a lot of unsuccessful attempts until she finally mastered that.

Everything was all right at first but after the clock showed nine her nervousness started to build up. She was thinking about what was going to happen at the meeting, who else would be there, what they were going to discuss and she started to doubt if she got the address right. So she was nervous about all possible things. It was quite strange since she presented numerous reports before large enough audiences in the Ministry, but on the other hand this feeling was hardly stage fright.

In the end she decided to play the violin to take her mind off all that. Usually she played it only on Sundays, but if she was going to break all her old habits anyway, there was not a reason why she should not start right now. Soon cheerful sounds filled the room.

Elsie wanted to be there half an hour before the set time, therefore quarter past two she was completely ready. She decided to wear muggle clothes to not attract unnecessary attention to the headquarters. She put on a dark blue dress, just below her knees, with long lace sleeves and her favorite black boots. By the way she always wore muggle clothes when she was not in the Ministry. This was partly because her neighborhood was not magical and people stared at her far too much when she was dressed in robes and partly because muggle clothes were more comfortable for her than wizards' attire.

Elsie looked at herself in the mirror for the last time, took her wand from the tea table and went out.

She Apparated in some dirty alley. The smell of rotten meet and dirty socks immediately filled her nostrils; a few cats ran away from the nearest trash cans mewing furiously. Five minutes later she was standing on the Grimmauld Place looking at the houses in front of her. There was only numbers eleven and thirteen but as soon as the thought that there should be number twelve too somewhere passed through her mind, the two houses were moved apart and a third one had slowly inflated between them. Elsie came to the black dilapidated door and rang the serpent shaped doorbell, no answer followed, so she did it again. "Do not ring the bell for Merlin knickers' sake!" an annoyed male voice shouted from inside the house. Somebody in there was clearly trying too hard to be funny.

Finally the door opened revealing short, red-haired, kind faced woman who glanced at Elsie and said quickly: "Oh, you must be Elsie," then took her by the arm and yanked inside. The red-haired woman only had time to say "Dumbledore told me -"but she was rudely interrupted as the long, moth-eaten curtains on the right wall of the hallway flew apart and horrible screech pierced their ears. The portrait of an old woman in black cap was violently screaming brandishing her clawed hands.

"Filth! Scum! Half-breeds, mudbloods, werewolfs and freaks! How dare you befoul the house of my fathers -"

Soon the other portraits in the hallway woke up and started to yell too creating the atmosphere of the real chaos.

Elsie was shocked, to say the least. Looking round eyed at the scene she clapped her hands over her ears and moved back until it looked like she was trying to become a part of the door.

The red-haired woman was frantically attempting without much success to close the curtains, but then a man with long black hair came hurriedly out of the door in the far end of the hallway. Together the two of them finally managed to close the hideous curtains and the screeches of the abominable old woman died away. While the man was muttering something under his breath staring maliciously at the velvet fabric, the woman ran up and down the hall stunning all the other portraits with her wand. At last she returned to Elsie, who was still standing very, very near the door.

"I am so sorry, dear," she whispered, "We tried to take that thing down but it's no use. Calm down, don't look so scared. Let's go to the kitchen, I'll give you tea."

Elsie nodded and followed her without saying anything.

They went down the hall towards the door through which the man with black hair had just come. She had already, more or less, come to her senses, which let her notice the surroundings. The house was very gloomy and sombre: the old-fashioned gas lamps were casting a flickering light over old portraits which just recently were producing such a terrible noise, a cobwebby serpent-shaped chandelier glimmered overhead and under close examination practically every possible thing had a serpent form.

Although this house certainly was not the one she wanted to live in or be in for a prolonged period of time, it appealed to Elsie in a peculiar way. Judging by the appearance this place should contain at least several interesting magical objects, maybe even Dark magic artefacts. In this case she was very eager to get her still sweaty from the recent fright hands on them.

The basement kitchen with rough stone walls was a little bit less gloomy than the hallway. All the light was coming from a large fire at the far end of the room and a ball of light that was flying above the door. Heavy iron pots and pans were hanging from the dark ceiling casting odd shadows on the floor. A long wooden table in the middle of the room was surrounded by numerous chairs. There was nobody else here. Elsie visibly relaxed for she apprehended that she would have to go into the room full of unknown people.

The red haired woman hastily put a steaming cup of black tea on the table, then she conjured seemingly out of nowhere a huge plate of chocolate chip cookies and put it near the cup. She put her hands on her hips and looked at the table appraisingly.

"Here you are," she said and looked at Elsie as if she had just remembered of her presence, "Oh, I forgot to introduce myself. I am Mrs. Molly Weasley, you can call me Molly." And she put out her hand. Elsie took it and smiled softly shaking the woman's hand lightly.

"Nice to meet you. I am Elsie Edevane, a new member of the Order."

"I know, Professor Dumbledore told me. And again I am sorry for that portrait," Mrs. Weasley repeated her apologies.

"It's all right but it was rather unexpected -" Elsie trailed off, her smile faded. Now she felt ashamed of her disgraceful reaction, it was very cowardly but after all she was always a coward.

"You don't know anybody here in the Order, do you?" Mrs. Weasley sympathetically patted Elsie's forearm, "But don't worry everybody will be very happy to meet you." Elsie wanted to add "almost everybody" and smirk but decided against doing this inconsiderate act. Mentioning Professor Snape would raise unnecessary questions but nobody needed to know in what circumstances they had met before.

Mrs. Weasley continued:

"I noticed you have French accent, then you should meet Fleur Delacour, she is French too, you know, Elsie, you certainly will find common ground -," but her speech was interrupted, for that Elsie was deeply grateful.

"What a little timid rabbit you are, aren't you, Eeelsiee," black haired man observed drawling her name as if tasting it while he was standing in the doorway with a beaming smile on his face.

* * *

**It's a quote from "the Forsyte saga" by John Galsworthy, if you are interested:)


End file.
